Sir Robin Knox-Johnston slowly reeling in the Rhum class

Here is Clipper Race chairman and founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston's latest Route du Rhum blog from Wednesday morning. He is now in seventh position on his Open 60 Grey Power, going up three places from last night, and is making 12.1 knots.

Tuesday was a good day for us.Once I had sorted out the deck at daylight, I
set more sail and we got moving at last. This boat was built by that remarkable Italian sailor Giovanni Soldini
as Fila and he won the Around Alone race in her the next year. For this race we had time to prepare her
properly, unlike the 2006 Velux5 Oceans race where we were rushed.

So on Tuesday I put her under some pressure to get across
the Bay of Biscay fast and make up some of the time we lost in the Channel, and
it was good to look astern at a long straight wake stretching away into the
distance.

I think I lost some time at the beginning because the
tacking angle is too wide and we need deeper dagger boards to grip the water
when beating.

Boats like the water to go along the hull not across it.

Also, I did try to stop the boat being slammed too much
in the waves as breakages at the beginning demand a price down the
line.To win, first you have to finish.

My only
"damage" so far is that the wind instruments have failed, but that is
where I have an advantage over the younger skippers in that I grew up when we
did not have such luxuries.

So, as I look at the latest position reports, it is good
to see we are slowly reeling in the boats that got ahead of us
earlier. We have the speed on a reach,so it will now come down to tactical
decisions as to where to choose to make the crossing of the Atlantic, and every
competitor is thinking about that right now. At the end of the day, we all race within our classes, but I think we
must all be watching with admiration the progress of the Ultimes.

20 years ago Peter Blake and I thought a 92 foot
catamaran was big and fast, and it was at the time. We averaged 15 knots around the world with a
crew of 8.Loick Peyron is now averaging
close to 30 knots single handed!

That is progress. One wonders at what the watchkeepers on
the Merchant ships make of it, as they see AIS targets coming towards them, or
overtaking them at the speeds we now make in yachts.Banque Populaire VII must appear like a new secret
navy weapon.

And sitting here watching all the action in the
navigation area is a Royal National Lifeboat Institution "Teddy"
Bear, chosen from amongst thousands to accompany me in this race.His reward will be to be sold off to raise money for the RNLI.

Robin Knox-Johnston

You can track Sir Robin and Grey Power here on the official race tracker.